Category Archives: News

October 2019: As part of its $4 million project funded, in part, by the Advanced Manufacturing Office of the US Department of Energy, EcoCatalytic successfully demonstrated a 1,000 fold scale up of laboratory results in a continuous circulating bed pilot unit of its patented ethane to ethylene ODH technology. The pilot unit runs at a 1.5 kg/D of ethylene product rate using a fluid catalyst prepared by a qualified commercial catalyst vendor.

July 2019: Bio2Electric, LLC was awarded a $200,000 DOE SBIR contract to develop its novel oxidative plastic cracking technology. This technology utilizes Bio2Electric’s core chemical looping know-how and can convert unseparated mixture of plastic waste (HDPE, LDPE, PE, PET, PS, and others) back to their fundamental chemical building blocks. This “ultimate” in recycling technology allows the production of recycled plastics with identical physical properties as virgin plastic, is internally energy balanced and does not require any plastic waste separation.

April 2, 2018. EcoCatalytic Inc. was formed by the founders of Bio2Electric, LLC. EcoCatalytic Inc. will use funding from strategic investors for advancing hydrocarbon technologies, with a focus on the conversion of shale gas to ethylene and fuels.

March 2, 2018. EcoCatalytic Technologies was awarded a $149,999 SBIR contract from the US Department of Energy for the advancement of its newly discovered catalyst for the conversion of methane to olefins. These new materials use a novel “redox” approach for the oxidative couple of methane (OCM) to ethylene at yields far above other industry published results.

January 29, 2018. EcoCatalytic Technologies was awarded a $2 million contract from the Advanced Manufacturing Office of the Department of Energy for the development of EcoCatalytic’s “flameless combustion” process for the conversion of ethane to ethylene. This project will also be supported by $2 million of non-government matching funds. It allows EcoCatalytic to scale up its recently patented advances in selective hydrogen combustion oxygen transfer agents.

January 10, 2018. EcoCatalytic Technologies successfully commissioned a continuous circulating bed pilot unit for the conversion of ethane to ethylene. Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX constructed the unit and operates it under contract.

PRINCETON, N.J, July 28, 2014 — Bio2Electric, LLC, dba EcoCatalytic Technologies, received a three year, $3.8 million contract from the Advanced Research Project Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) to develop a new catalyst technology for ethylene and propylene production from components of natural gas.

March 20, 2013. John Sofranko’s idea, backed by decades of experience, sounds like a slam dunk. He founded Bio2electric, based at the Sarnoff Center, to convert errant polluting natural gas — the stuff flaring up from offshore oil platforms or seeping from landfills — into gasoline that could power any car.

After an arduous application process, his start-up was recently awarded a $600,000 Department of Energy contract to fund early research. Chances of success? “Five percent,” says Sofranko cheerfully enough. “Well, before the contract, I would have said 5 percent. Now it’s more like 10 percent. But in a year, when the contract ends, it could be more like 25 to 30 percent.” A second, much larger, contract could follow the first, and chances of success would rise substantially.

February 3, 2013. Chemist John Sofranko says the best time to start your own company is at the beginning of your career or at the end.

Lucky for him, starting his company at the end of his career provided him with a wealth of knowledge in a now-prominent scientific field of study.

His 3-year-old company, Bio2Electric, is developing technologies for the conversion of bio-renewable fuels to power. Most recently, the company received a $600,000 grant from the Department of Energy to create a reactor that converts natural gas to gasoline while also creating energy.

January 16, 2013. Bio2Electric, an energy technology company on Washington Road in the Sarnoff Center, was one of 66 companies to receive a $600,000 grant from the federal government.

The company’s project to convert natural gas into liquid fuel was selected by the U.S. Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) to receive a total of $130 million in funding through its “OPEN 2012” program. Funding ranged from almost $5 million to about $400,000.

December 12, 2012. Township-based company Bio2Electric was selected last month to receive a grant of $600,000 to develop a small-scale reactor that converts natural gas into a liquid transportation fuel, officials said.

Bio2Electric’s project was one of 66 cutting-edge research projects selected by the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy (ARPA-E) to receive a total of $130 million in funding through its “OPEN 2012” program.

November 28, 3012. Bio2Electric will develop a small-scale reactor that converts natural gas into a liquid transportation fuel by combining fuel cell technology with advanced catalysts. Conventional large-scale gasto-liquid reactors produce waste-heat, reducing the energy efficiency of the process. In contrast, this reactor produces electricity as a byproduct of fuel production. If successful, this small-scale reactor could be deployed in remote locations to provide not only liquid fuel but also electricity, increasing the utility of geographically isolated gas reserves.